THE FREEDOS BETA 9 ("Methusalem") DISTRIBUTION CD-ROM BASED INSTALLATION INFORMATION Updated by Jeremy Davis 13 July 2003 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This FreeDOS CD-ROM is intended to allow one to boot the FreeDOS kernel and then either install FreeDOS to a hard drive, or run FreeDOS (use the included programs) directly from the CD. Please visit http://www.freedos.org for more information about FreeDOS The CD image (or CD-ROM) may be useful in emulation environments (such as Bochs [bochs.sourceforge.net] or vmware [www.vmware.com]) however it has not been tested using them and as such is not guaranteed to work. Please read the other installation documents before attempting to install FreeDOS: DOCS\INSTALL.TXT (a general overiew aimed more at those installing FreeDOS using the floppy based distribution) and DOCS\INSTALL2.TXT (more detailed information about the steps to perform during installation, written for when booting from the installation floppy of the floppy based distribution, but most included information applies to installation from this CD as well. A What is on this CD (Layout) B How do I run (or install) FreeDOS from this CD C Creating a custom boot floppy to use with this CD D Creating a custom CD E Reporting problems -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A What is on this CD (Layout) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This CD contains a complete (except for the source install sets) FreeDOS installation in \FREEDOS\ which is used by the installation routines. Additionally, all install sets have been extracted into \FREEDOS\PACKAGES\ (so you may omit any instructions that specify to unzip install sets such as BASE1.ZIP, UTIL1.ZIP, ...) thus you may use :\FREEDOS\PACKAGES\ as the source for installation purposes. AUTORUN.INF Windows stuff for when people view CD-ROM README.1ST General readme that should be read \isolinux\ Contains the bootable CD files such as ISOLINUX \FREEDOS\ Contains most of the FreeDOS related files INSTALL.BAT Installs FreeDOS from this CD-ROM READ.ME Basic information about this distribution AUTORUN\ Startup files and additional AUTORUN data DISKIMGS\ Contains a generic* CD-ROM based installation disk images (*requires you to add your own CD-ROM drivers) DOCS\ Contains important readmes, installation information, ... EXTRAS\ Contains additional DOS programs that may be of interest FDOS\ Contains FreeDOS installed, used when running from CD-ROM INSTALL\ Contains files used when installing from this CD-ROM DISKSETS\ Contains all the disksets, used to install to hd DOCS\ Localizable documentation used during installation INSTALL\ The install program itself and its data -------------------------------------------------------------------------- B How do I run (or install) FreeDOS from this CD -------------------------------------------------------------------------- To run FreeDOS from the CD, boot [either directly from the CD or using a floppy boot disk with DOS CD-ROM drivers] and make sure that :\FREEDOS\SETUP\BIN is in your PATH environment variable (where is the drive letter of your CD-ROM drive). If you use KEYB you may also want to add :\FREEDOS\SETUP\BIN\KEY to your PATH. Note: when booting directly from the CD or using a custom boot floppy as escribed in Section C, the path should already be setup and FreeDOS ready to run. (where A:\ is your current drive and R: should be your CD-ROM drive) A:\>set PATH=R:\FREEDOS\FDOS\BIN;R:\FREEDOS\FDOS\BIN\KEY;%PATH% \FREEDOS\SETUP\BATCH\AUTORUN.BAT may be ran to initiate installing FreeDOS from this CD-ROM. If it fails to find your CD-ROM drive with this CD in it, then manually set the cdrom environment variable to the appropriate drive letter including the color (:) before executing AUTORUN.BAT. The installation must be performed using FreeCom. If you booted using a different command interpreter (such as one for another DOS) then you may need to run \FDOS\BIN\COMMAND.COM /E:512 before begining the installation. R:\>set cdrom=R: R:\>\FREEDOS\AUTORUN\AUTORUN.BAT If you are having difficulties (your computer freezes or other odd behaviour) when running FreeDOS from the CD (or during installation). You may wish to use the DOS CD-ROM driver for your specific CD drive. To aid in doing this, when booting from the CD, option 4 allows you to boot using drivers available on a diskette in your 1st floppy drive. For ATAPI (IDE) drives we provide a cdrom-driver on the bootdisk. For non-ATAPI drives (for example a cdrom hung on the cdrom connector on soundcards, or SCSI drives), please provide its DOS driver on a separate disk. You need to select option 4 during install (SCSI) and provide the complete filename when asked for it (e.g. A:\DRIVER\ASPI8DOS.SYS). You may specify multiple drivernames if you require it. Separate the filenames by a space. Example: A:\ASPI8XX.SYS A:\DRIVER\SYMDISK.SYS (note that the physical diskdrive may become B:) -------------------------------------------------------------------------- C Creating a custom boot floppy to use with this CD -------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you are unable to boot from the CD-ROM, you may still use it to install FreeDOS by creating a boot floppy. To aid in this, there is a generic FreeDOS CD installation bootdisk builder on the CD that can be used to create a disk useful for this purpose. \FREEDOS\SETUP\BATCH\BOOTDISK.BAT i Write it to a floppy (option 3, or above mentioned batchfile) ii Copy the CD-ROM driver for your CD-ROM drive to the floppy iii Either rename the driver to ATAPICDD.SYS or edit config.sys and change ATAPICDD.SYS to your driver's filename iv Boot using the floppy (with the FreeDOS CD in your CD drive) v Continue installation just as though you booted directly from the CD -------------------------------------------------------------------------- D Creating a custom CD -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Please look in isolinux directory for makeiso.bat, a tool to aid in creating your customized ISO image. Under Windows it should be a simple five step procedure: 1) copy all the files on the CD to a subdirectory [folder] on your hard drive using Explorer (the GUI) or from the command line e.g. XCOPY R: C:\TEMP\FDCD /S /H 2) make your customizations, removing read-only attributes as needed [copying a file from CD may automatically set it to read-only, so to alter or replace you may need to correct this] 3) change to C:\TEMP\FDCD\isolinux\ (substituting C:\TEMP\FDCD with the actual path you copied the files to e.g. CD C:\TEMP\FDCD\isolinux 4) run makeiso.bat which will remove any read-only settings for isolinux files and creates the new ISO image Under WindowsNT/2000/XP you can simply doubleclick makeiso.bat. Windows 95, 98 and ME versions require running MAKEISO from the commandline (dos prompt). 5) test the ISO image (boot it, view it, etc.) to ensure everything works alright. Bochs (bochs.sf.net) is a useful free program for this. The bootdisk you see when booting from cdrom (and which is written to a diskette if you run the bootdisk creator program) is located at ISOLINUX\FDBOOT.IMG (360KB). Files most wanted to update are probably the kernel (kernel.sys) and the shell (command.com). In case of updating the kernel, delete kernel.sys, and put the new kernel.sys in the correct (top level / root) directory. The pre-FreeDOS menu you see is located in 2 files: \isolinux\isolinux.cfg and \isolinux\bootmsg.txt change them if you want to add more boot disks or modify the message displayed when booting from the CD. For more information visit the site below: --------------------------------------------- ISOLINUX and MEMDISK copyright 2001-2004 H. Peter Anvin http://syslinux.zytor.com/ --------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- E Reporting problems -------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you run into problems there are several avenues you may try. If the problem is in one of the Base FreeDOS programs you should report the problem using bugZilla. http://www.freedos.org/bugs/ Other related issues may also be reported there. For problems related to the distribution (program XYZ is missing, please don't include program ZZ3, document NNN should say 'dkdkdk', etc.) please email me: jeremyd@computer.org {No unsolicited Junk email please!} For general FreeDOS related issues, try the FreeDOS mailing lists: http://www.freedos.org/freedos/lists/. Information is obtainable online without the need to subscribe from the following sources: * http://www.freedos.org/ * http://www.freedos.org/freedos/lists/ * http://www.topica.com/lists/fd-dev/read (read-only old mail archive) * http://www.freedos.org/bugs/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------- FreeDOS is a trademark of Jim Hall. It was claimed as a trademark to prevent its possible abuse or misuse. The name FreeDOS may be used by the FreeDOS community to refer to programs that are part of the FreeDOS operating system, or to associate their programs with FreeDOS.